Monday, January 16, 2012

A Plenitude of Planets: Exoplanets Are More Commonplace Than Stars: Scientific American

Of course, there should be more planets than there are stars and even if you find a star without a planet; it should be offset by planets freely floating in space not gravitationally linked to a Solar system. In our Solar System alone; we have 8 planets and various dwarf planets (Pluto) with many some of whom are still waiting to be discovered proto-planets. The 1.6 ratio of planets to a sun is a conservative estimate. 




A Plenitude of Planets: Galactic Search Finds Exoplanets Are More Commonplace Than Stars

The ubiquity of extrasolar planets, and of relatively small worlds in particular, bodes well for searches for life-friendly Earth twins
By John Matson | January 11, 2012 |

The next time you look up at the night sky and find yourself marveling at the number of stars overhead, know that you are only seeing part of the magnificent bounty that our galaxy holds. Most of those Milky Way stars are not isolated orbs. Rather an average star has at least one planetary companion, invisible to the naked eye and in most cases as yet unseen by telescopes, according to a new analysis.

That extrasolar planets should be even more common than stars, which themselves seem innumerable, lends support to the hope that somewhere up in the night sky, circling one of those stars, is a world like Earth where life may have had a chance to take root, and maybe even have evolved into an intelligent form.

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